June 2007

My Mom still visits Greta every Tuesday at day care, and this week she took pictures. I had heard the kids all eat meals at an actual table, but I've never actually witnessed it. (And frankly, the thought kind of bent my brain.) So here it is. It still amazes me.

In addition to documenting meal time, my Mom also answered the question of why Greta sometimes comes home in her "oops clothes" with her regular clothes soaking wet in a Wegmans bag. Here are the kids doing "water play."

Greta attended her first pool party tonight, which, subsequently, was the going away party for our very good friend Amy. I can't believe Amy is leaving us; it's officially the end of an era. We are going to miss her, but I look forward to visiting her in Philly sometime.

Greta loved hanging out around the pool. She wasn't super-duper keen on being in the pool, but she liked hanging out around it, hanging with the cool kids.

A few months back I mentioned that we had portraits taken of Greta as well as a family portrait, by a then RIT senior. Katie Koch, the photographer, has since graduated and has her professional site up. Look at the Portraits section to see Greta and look at the Families section to see our family portrait. Aren't we a pretty bunch? (That's a testament to how good a photographer Katie is.)

I was also just told today that our family portrait is hanging in the photo building at RIT...just in case you want to stalk us see them up close but don't want to see us, er something.

So, when Greta was just a few weeks old, we noticed that she seemed to have one eyelid that drooped. It was especially noticeable when she was sleepy. We mentioned it to her pediatrician early on, and he didn't see it. This past Monday, when we went for her 15-month well-child visit, the appointment happened to be during her nap time. The pediatrician said he thought she might have a lazy eye and that he'd like us to see a specialist.

While I haven’t noticed her eyelid drooping recently, I thought for sure she had a lazy eye. I did some research on the Internet, which really did not help ease my mind. I read up on the treatment, which is typically wearing a patch over the good eye to force the weak eye to strengthen itself. Every time I thought of Greta either wearing one of those sticky, ugly patches or one of the cutesy cloth patches with, like, an American flag or a pumpkin on it, I wanted to cry.

We went to the ophthalmologist today, and it was a fairly nerve-wracking two hours. I happened to bring in a photo from when she was about two months that showed what her eyes looked like when we thought there was a problem originally. The doctor was amazed to see the photo and see her eyes now. He thinks that she did have an eye that was slightly turned that healed on its own. He said he thinks her eyes are totally fine and just wants to check her out again in six months. Holy crap.

Here's the picture I brought with us to show the doctor.

Here's a recent picture. Ta-da!

So I realize a lazy eye, while it can cause potential vision loss, including blindness in the affected eye, is really not a very big deal, especially when it's caught early. But come on, everyone wants their kid to be perfect. I remember going to preschool with a girl who had to wear a patch, and I always felt so badly for her. In my little four-year-old brain, a lazy eye was the worst thing I could conceive of. I remember being quite distressed about it. I just didn't want anyone feeling that way about my little bunny (myself included).

In other news, I had my last acupuncture treatment tonight to "poke out the crazies." My update is that the acupuncture really worked amazingly well. In the last two weeks, I've only had two anxiety dreams and they were not nearly as severe as I had been having. I loves it.

Um, I think that's it for now. What do you have to say for yourselves?

Can I get an amen for how hard it is to find an acceptable screen name with AIM? I tried maybe a dozen names before coming up with this one. It's like you've got to add your social security number after whatever name you want to find something original. I started typing in some crazy stuff for experimental purposes, and even those names were taken. Anyway, you've got to get creative. I totally would have had iboneit69 if it wasn't taken.

In addition, even though I totally hated my previous screen name (even the day I created it, after becoming exasperated from trying many other names), I found it very hard to part with. I can't help but feel like a little part of me is gone. Am I nuts? It had to be done, though, because the old name had my previous employers acronym in it and I kept expecting to get a cease and desist from them. I'm rambling. Anyway, I finally changed it. Yay me. How cleansing. Now we can all move on.

If you're a pnf.com regular, then you know that Pat and I had Pat and Fran Fun Day 2007! on Friday. In a word, it was great. While I brought Greta to day care (which is an hour round trip all said and done), Pat loaded up the rest of the beer bottle graveyard in our basement and returned them to Wegmans from whence they came. We regrouped and went to Jim's Diner for a pretty delicious (decree: self-loathing) breakfast. We needed some food that would stay with us because we had a day of shopping at the outlet mall ahead of us. We had a great day overall, and things were so successful at the mall that I'm kind of surprised my credit card company didn't call to report some "suspicious activity." We even remembered to pick up Greta at the end of the day.

Pat made me pose on Dino. I am just pretending to me mad. Promise.

Saturday, we went to a bridal shower out at Mendon Ponds. Greta had refused to nap that morning, and then she managed to rub sun block in one eye pretty badly. She is also, how shall I say, desperate to assert her independence lately, so it was kind of a short visit to the shower. Pat managed to get some cute/fun photos.

In the afternoon, we headed out to Skaneateles to offload the kiddo once more. My parents offered to watch Greta for the night so we could have a nice easy-going time at my brother and sister-in-law's. We headed out to Phil and Becky's favorite wine store for some wine tasting, and then we got some very good Chinese food. It was such a nice low-key night, and I know I laughed harder than I've laughed in a long time playing with Becky's iMac Photo Booth.

Bizarro Fran and Pat

Bizarro Leila and Phil

Bizarro Becky

Sunday, we headed over to my parents' house to retrieve Greta and have a nice late lunch. Greta showed us what she enjoyed most at Grandma and Grandpa's: walking around and around the house in a circle, and she also showed off some sign language! She signed "milk," "more," and "all done." I'm glad someone's teaching her something.

Yesterday also marked Greta's 15 month birthday. My little boo is growing up so quickly. We got her stats at the doctor's today and found that she's still freakishly tall, totally middle of the road for weight, and has a rather small head. She also showed off some molars that are coming in and took her shot like a champ.

Pat and I are both taking tomorrow off, and we're shipping the kid off to day care. I call it Pat and Fran Fun Day 2007! All day today I was so excited. I just kept thinking, "It's Friday, it's Friday, awesome."

Our big plans for Pat and Fran Fun Day 2007! are to go out to breakfast (without having to pack a diaper bag and pray that Greta will behave) and then out to the outlet malls to shop (without staying about 20 minutes and having to turn back), and then who knows what other fun is in store. On Pat and Fran Fun Day 2007!, we go where the road takes us.

So, I really haven't been in the mood to post anything lately, but the cold shoulder that is the lack of comments over the last few days has motivated me to say something new. Hooray for speech therapy. Get it? Say "something new"? Oh, never mind.

To sort of start in chronological order, I had my acupuncture appointment Friday, and it exceeded my expectations. I need to go to some follow-up appointments, but I'm feeling a lot better already. I've only had one bad anxiety dream since my appointment, which is great. I really can't say enough good things about acupuncture. When she puts the needles in, I immediately feel so good and relaxed, and then I get to relax for half an hour. It's the only time I relax and feel no guilt (which is sad and says something about me, no doubt), so it's a good feeling. Thanks to Brette for giving me the nudge to go. No thanks to Joe who suggested the building may catch on fire while the needles are in me. [Jerk.]

This weekend wasn't super fun, but at least it was productive. We finally got back into doing some home improvements, which we really haven't done since Greta was a zygote. Those of you who have been in our house know what a train wreck our dining room is. It's almost humorous....but noooot quite. It was the first room we started when we moved into the house (three years ago), and when we realized just how much work it was going to take, we quit. We had big plans to drywall the room because of some cracked plaster and about a zillion layers of paint and wallpaper, but after getting some quotes on the work (too much) and realizing we would never get it done ourselves with a toddler, we decided to work with what we have. We just went ahead and started painting (we're not done with that yet) and changed the light fixture. Even though it's a tad *ehem* rustic, it looks pretty dandy, especially compared to how it looked before.

Here's a picture displaying the length of the chain that came with our new light fixture. Does it really need to be this long? I kept cracking myself up by pretending the chain was for hanging up a s3x swing. Hehehe.

Here's the new s3x swing light fixture.

The rest of the weekend was a bit of a battle of wills. Now that Greta is walking, it's all she wants to do. Simple trips to Home Depot have turned into draining events coupled with aimless meandering, tantrums, and an extra dirty baby. (Has anyone ever noticed how filthy HD's floors are?) Add heat to a tired, cranky, dirty baby and forget about it. We may never leave the house again.

What else? Well, if I look a little rougher around the edges these days, it's because I've now got two jobs, two jobs, two jobs in one. My supervisor went out on maternity leave, and now I'm taking over most (all?) of her responsibilities...plus mine. This week has proved interesting. Let's just say she does a lot more than I realized. I am definitely stepping out of my comfort zone. (I hate that saying.) Telling clinicians what to do is not exactly my strong suit. Well, I'm not telling them what to do per se. I'm more giving them gentle reminds about work and due dates, etc. I definitely feel like I have zero credibility. Luckily the doctors I work with seem to be humoring me so far. Now I just need to make sure none of them find out my highest level of education is a bachelors in studio art. D'awesome.